⚠️ Warning! Passed merchant fees might be breaking the law
Trying to offset your merchant card costs by adding a flat 3% fee at checkout?
While passing credit card fees is legal in some states with strict rules, surcharging a DEBIT card is illegal across all 50 states under federal law.
It doesn't matter if they run it "as credit." If the card networks catch you, they can blackball your business instantly.
Always seek the advice of a bookkeeping or tax pro, whichever is most appropriate, for your specific business situation.
🤝 Partnerships crumble over sloppy bookkeeping
Your 50/50 legal operating agreement means absolutely nothing if your general ledger doesn't back it up.
When partner draws, capital contributions, and personal expenses are lumped into a single equity bucket, tax season becomes a battlefield.
Your K-1s will be wrong, and someone is legally getting burned.
Always seek the advice of a bookkeeping or tax pro, whichever is most appropriate, for your specific business situation.
🛑 Stop treating Venmo & CashApp like secret wallets
If your business takes payments via Venmo, PayPal, CashApp, or Zelle, and you're just logging the lump-sum transfers to your bank account... you are a giant IRS audit magnet.
The IRS is heavily tracking these platforms now.
If you aren't natively tracking these channels at the transaction level, you're either missing out on major deductions or underreporting income.
Always seeks the advice of a bookkeeping or tax pro, whichever is most appropriate, for your specific business situation.
🛑 Open QuickBooks and look at your Balance Sheet right now
Scroll down to the equity section.
Do you see a number sitting next to "Opening Balance Equity"?
If that number isn’t $0, your software setup is completely broken.
It’s like building a luxury house on a cracked foundation—every profit report you run from this point on is fundamentally lying to you.
Always seek the advice of a bookkeeping or tax pro, whichever is most appropriate, for your specific business situation.